


steps

by inotherwords



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Angst, Community: scifiland, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-02
Updated: 2012-05-02
Packaged: 2017-11-04 18:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/396644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inotherwords/pseuds/inotherwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'm not sure when my life was reduced to numbers, but it's all I see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	steps

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a scifiland challenge.

One step, two.

I'm not sure when my life was reduced to numbers, but it's all I see.

Fifteen steps into the shower. Three to toss my uniform into the recycler. Five to the closet if I feel like putting on a fresh one. 

Thirty to the turbolift, and from there eight to my chair on the bridge. But it's more likely that I'll instead take the twelve that takes me to the ready room. It's impossible to know how many I've taken inside there, and there were some curious eyes as the carpet was removed and a new one replicated for its replacement. 

"Quality control," is what I quip with what I think is a wink. Acquiescent nods in return. They don't ask any further and I don't bring it up. Let sleeping dogs lie. This one has sharp teeth.

I wore a hole pacing back and forth in front of the viewport. Beside the desk. In front of the couch. (There is no point for a couch, really.) I almost broke my favorite mug - a tacky, ugly thing from a gift shop, a present, but it's mine to favor - clutching it too tightly between sweaty hands. That one required a dive to the ground, but it's a scrape I can live with.

Out of all of the numbers, two are my favorites. I used to have three.

Thirty-five takes me from my quarters to sickbay versus twenty-three from the bridge.

Zero was the amount of steps that it would take me to see Bones.

I haven't counted now.  
I don't think my carpet could handle the answer.


End file.
